A World Wide Web Site

A WORLD WIDE WEB SITE

FOR THE

EUROPEAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

www.eipa.nl

Maastricht, The Netherlands

LEONARDO DA VINCI European Programme

Training Contract AT&Q – 0739

(September 1 - October 10, 1997)

Author: Giuseppe Chiasera

University of Trento (Italy)

Supervisor: Veerle Deckmyn

European Institute of Public Administration (The Netherlands)
SUMMARY

Introduction 1

1. PROJECT: INTERNET & INTRANET WWW 2

2. WEB SITE ANALYSIS 3

· Unix server

· NT server

· Analysis conclusion

3. NEW EIPA'S WWW SITE STRUCTURE 6

· Preliminary

· New structure: a recurrent approach

· Description:

· The home page

· Frames to manage the topics

· Implementation

· Database integration

4. USERS' SUGGESTIONS 12

5. HOW TO UPDATE AND MAINTAIN THE SITE 13

· Standard layout

· Users and Services

6. COPYRIGHT 14

Conclusions 15
Thanks

URL: http://www.jus.unitn.it/users/chiasera/eipa_www/

A World Wide Web site for the European Institute of Public Administration

MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands

Introduction

The European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) is a non-profit-making organization which serves the public administrations of Member States of the European Union. EIPA was founded in 1981 on the occasion of the first Maastricht European Council. The objectives of the Institute, as laid down in its statutes, are ‘to provide civil servants and other interested parties with training courses of a European character relating to public administration in the European Union and the collection and development of knowledge regarding public administration in the European Union or in relation to it.’ Thus, the Institute is dedicated to supporting the practical management of European integration through the provision of European-level training, applied research and consultancy, as a complement to national and sub national programmes. EIPA is especially qualified to carry out this task thanks to its unique combination of characteristics:

European character

While retaining all the advantages of institutional autonomy, EIPA has a truly European character and institutional structure which enables it to profit from close links both with the national administrations of the EU Member States and with the European institutions.

Bridge between theory and practice

EIPA has a distinct vocation as a bridge between theory and practice in the field of European law, policy and public management. EIPA's permanent scientific staff includes experts in different disciplines both from academic backgrounds and from national administrations.

At the forefront of managing new challenges

EIPA not only employs and develops innovative teaching methodologies, but is also at the forefront of setting up new forms of European training and mobility programmes for public servants, such as the Karolus and EuroManagers programmes.

A broad network

EIPA draws on a broad network of institutions and expertise. The Institute cooperates on a daily basis with EU institutions, national institutes of public administration and national, regional and local governments, as well as with universities from the various Member States.

To complement its working relationship with other organizations, EIPA has set up two antennae; the European Centre for Judges and Lawyers in Luxembourg and the European Centre for the Regions in Barcelona.

(extracted from EIPA’s presentation brochure)

1. PROJECT: INTERNET & INTRANET WWW

LEONARDO DA VINCI European Community Program Project n. I/96/0739/PL/II.1.2.b)/FPC

Working Program: World Wide Web and Databases in the European Union

These days, in the informatics field, hardware and software capabilities strike a good balance between performance and cost. The impact in the everyday life of these technologies is exemplified by the “inter networking digital data exchange” better known as that phenomenon - the INTERNET.

A major consequence of this synergy is the easy exchange of a large amount of information: e-mail, news, hypertext, database, etc.

In this context the availability of data in real time can change the approach in some fields of research and administration.

All the major organizations have an advanced information system. They have planned a structured collection of documents in a digital form and made these available world wide through the internet.

The traditional software instruments to receive digital information and to interact with remote hosts were ftp and telnet. Nowadays the new easy and powerful instrument is the World Wide Web browser and its related tools; it permits interaction with a remote data system using an easy and intuitive graphic interface. Some firms already use this approach to promote their services and information, moreover a WWW site can support the INTRANET information system too.

The decision to adopt an information system could be already made or it can be suggested by the intranet structure.

The first step is to analyze the aim of the firm and the target of its services.

The implementation can begin by a translation or digitalization of the existing material in a suitable form.

During this time it is possible to introduce the personnel to a deeper knowledge of the web instrument and tools.

The other aspect of the same project is the remote access of information systems and data bases of public and private institutions. An interdisciplinary approach can increase the benefits of these powerful tools.

This project might be ambitious but is abtainable. The aim is to update knowledge in the informatics field, as it applies to the web, and its application in support of users needs.

The experience gained since June 1996 in setting up the WWW server and related services at the LAW faculty of Trento University will be applied.

2. WEB SITE ANALYSIS

Here is described the WWW site that I found at EIPA when my training begun. I wrote these notes while I was investigating the content.

UNIX SERVER

http://www.eipa.nl/index.html

This server is hosted by CobWeb provider (http://www.cobweb.nl/) who use a Linux operating system; the default file name of the web site is index.html

All the links inside the page are absolute and point at the NT server at the address:

http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/default.htm (or eipatop.htm)

NT SERVER

http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/default.htm (or at eipatop.htm)

Hosted by EPMS Company (http://www.epms.nl/), the default file name of the web site is default.htm, in some addresses there is a link to the eipatop.htm file.

The home page contains the EIPA's logo, an animated icon (a rotating globe) and the links to the topics described below.

The initial EIPA's home page site.

OVERVIEW: http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/eipa01.htm

It contains the html version of EIPA’s brochure, in a single file (27 KBytes) with a index and some capability to navigate through the document. There are some links to e-mail and a back link to the eipatop.htm main menu.

STAFF DATABASE: http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/staff.htm

It contains the html version of the Eipa’s Staff list in English, it is a single file (15 KB) with the e-mail addresses pointed out.

It is linked to a ‘en français’ file called fac0705f.htm (18 KB) with the same characteristics of the previous one and a link back to the ‘English version’. These files don’t contain any link to the home page.

ACTIVITIES: http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/activit.htm

It is an HTML form (2KB) to search EIPA’s activities in a DBText database file named ACTIVITI (~ 30KB). A full search can be made using the “*” symbol.

The search program used by the form is http://www.epms.nl/dbtcgi.exe

LIBRARY: http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/catalog/catalog.htm

It is an HTML form (3KB) to search in EIPA’s library DBText database file named CATALOG (10 MB), must be noted that both files are in catalog sub-directory.

The search program used by the form is http://www.epms.nl/dbtcgi.exe

It contains more than 20,000 titles, search must be carried out carefully.

The form page contains a link to the home page “eipatop.html”

PUBLICATIONS: http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/eipapubl.htm

It is an HTML file (93KB) containing a list of titles (only) with hyperlinks (about 40 titles). The hyperlinks point inside the same HTML document, there isn’t any reference to the home page.

EIPASCOPE: http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/eipalist.htm

It is an HTML file (14KB) containing an index of Special edition (4 files) and the EIPASCOPE standard edition from 1991/1 to 1997/1 (19 files).

Below is a list of the editions with their corresponding files.

Special edition: Newsletter of the Regions in the European Union 97/1 (REG_97-1.htm)

Special edition: Newsletter of the Regions in the European Union 96/3 (REG_93-3.htm)

Special edition: Newsletter of the Regions in the European Union 1995 (95-REG.htm)

Special edition: EIPA's 15th Anniversary (1996) (SPEC96.htm)

Giuseppe Chiasera www.eipa.nl

A World Wide Web site for the European Institute of Public Administration

MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands

A list of EIPASCOPE bulletin publication: from 1991/1 to 1997/1:

Y/# file(s)

1997/1 SCOPE97_1.htm

1996/3 SCOPE96_3.htm

1996/2 SCOPE96_2.htm

1996/1 SCOPE96_1.htm

1995/3 95-011.htm; 95-012.htm; 95-012.htm

1995/2 95-010.htm; 95-009.htm; 95-008.htm; 95-007.htm

1995/1 95-005.htm; 95-004.htm; 95-003.htm; 95-002.htm; 95-001.htm

1994/3 94-008.htm; 94-009.htm; 94-010.htm; 94-011.htm; 94-012.htm;

94-013.htm; 94-014.htm

1994/2 94-004.htm; 94-005.htm; 94-006.htm; 94-007.htm:

1994/1 94-001.htm; 94-002.htm; 94-003.htm;

1993/3 93-015.htm; 93-016.htm; 93-017.htm; 93-018.htm;

1993/2 93-011.htm; 93-012.htm; 93-013.htm;

1993/1 93-008.htm; 93-009.htm; 93-010.htm;

1992/3 SCOP92-3.htm

1992/2 SCOP92-2.htm

1992/1 SCOP92-1.htm

Each file starts with an hyperlink index to the subject, inside the same file, and a back link to the main index eipapubl.htm. The size of each file is considerable - (100KB)!

Giuseppe Chiasera www.eipa.nl

A World Wide Web site for the European Institute of Public Administration

MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands

CONTACTS: http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/contact.htm

It is an HTML file (2KB) containing a list of the Contact addresses with e-mail links.

MORE: http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/

Giuseppe Chiasera www.eipa.nl

A World Wide Web site for the European Institute of Public Administration

MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands

CATALOG directory
CATALOG.ACF / 20B
CATALOG.BTX / 9,000 KB
CATALOG.DBO / 125 KB
CATALOG.DBR / 10,000 KB
CATALOG.DBS / 4 KB
CATALOG.HTM / 2 KB
CATALOG.IXL / 3 KB
CATALOG.OCC / 6,228 KB
CATALOG.SDO / 36B
CATALOG.TBA / 6 KB
CATALOG.TTB / 3 KB
TYPE.HTM / 1 KB
type.txt / 2KB
whatsnew directory
booklet.htm / 87 KB
default.htm / 239 B
eipalist.htm / 12 KB
ieap97.htm / 31 KB
scop96_3.htm / 121 KB

Giuseppe Chiasera www.eipa.nl

A World Wide Web site for the European Institute of Public Administration

MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands

Analysis conclusion

A rather large amount of data with no logic at all, requiring an urgent change in the structure of the whole web site.

3. NEW EIPA’S WWW SITE STRUCTURE

Preliminary

The present depicted situation shows the quite confusing arrangement of the site between http://www.eipa.nl/ starting address and the subsequent http://www.epms.nl/www/eipa/ site where all the pages are resident. This arrangement has an historic reason: essential parts of the site use DBSearch to consult the Activities and Library database.

In order to overcome this dichotomy and meet EIPA's aim of promoting its own site name www.eipa.nl, it was decided to realize the web pages on the CobWeb Provider’s Unix machine and assume default.htm as default name of the site.

In order to maintain the transportability of these pages to so as to assist in realizing, in the near future, an Intranet site, a relative path address will be used wherever possible.

New structure: a recurrent approach

An analysis of the present and near future needs of EIPA led to the choice of the following main topics or categories:

· ACTIVITIES

· EIPASCOPE

· LIBRARY

· ORGANIZATION

· PUBLICATIONS

· SERVICES*

· USERS*

*suggested new categories

It is proposed to arrange the site using main directories with the same names as the above categories.

This choice has two advantages:

1. the creation of a main structure arranged by topics;

2. the creation of meaningful addresses like
http://www.eipa.nl/activities/ or http://www.eipa.nl/eipascope/ etc.

The idea is to realize the same structure for each topic with a common method of navigation. To this aim it is planned to develop standard home pages with an integrated browsing environment.

Description

At the root of the web site we’re planning to put only the home page and a few general-purpose files. This choice must be maintained in the future in order to have a fully structured approach, with no exceptions.

In this phase of development, we have at the root the following files: default.htm; leftup.htm; help.htm; frontcover.htm.

The home page

The choice to use default.htm comes from the wish that not only the home page, but also the starting point in each directory, should be the default name of the web server. The main advantage of this is that the desired effect will be achieved without typing the full address complete with file name. Secondly, it is possible to arrange a repeating name structure.

The home page characteristics must match the following aims:

1) Look good;

2) Download fast;

3) Highlight the main topic of EIPA's Activities and Structure:

4) Highlight the EIPA NEWS.

The first two needs are achieved by inserting EIPA logo and the “Van Eck” picture in low resolution versions, the “ Van Eck ” picture can be clicked to view a higher resolution if desired.

New EIPA's home page.

Two groups of links are arranged inside two titled tables.

EIPA NEWS contains links to new important news in the EIPA site in order to catch the attention of internet visitors. This part must be promptly updated in order to maintain a high interest and stimulate the users to visit the site regularly.

The standard topics are arranged in a table named ACTIVITIES & SERVICES and ORGANIZATION & ANTENNAE. In this group we find Activities, EIPASCOPE, Library, Publications, Services, Users, Organization, Staff, Luxembourg, Barcelona and Bruxelles. Clicking one of these hyperlinks will go straight to a new navigation interface.

Frames to manage the topics

The reasons of adopting a frames approach are easier browsing and preventing user disorientation.

Three frames named leftup, leftdown, and right were defined. In practice, the default.htm files (except the main home page) use a frame set definition as follows.

A three frames structure effect

<HTML<HEAD>

<TITLE>European Institute of Public Administration ( EIPA )</TITLE>